


The Slow Path

by frek



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Gen, Post-Series, Reincarnation, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-25
Updated: 2012-12-25
Packaged: 2017-11-22 09:15:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/608217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frek/pseuds/frek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin always knows where to find Arthur when he arrives on this plane.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Slow Path

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick post-series snippet. :)

Watching Arthur die was never something Merlin was able to get used to. It didn’t matter if Arthur died as a young child or an old man or somewhere in between. Even if he had lived a full life by Merlin's side, when Merlin watched Arthur take his last breath, it always felt like something inside him left with Arthur.

Of course, the deaths weren't nearly as intolerable as the long interims when Arthur was gone altogether from this plane. Those were the times Merlin would spend alone, wandering the world, watching for some sign of Arthur, a word of when he was going to return. He always did. Eventually. And Merlin always knew instinctively the moment that Arthur had arrived once again, a part of him drawn to the place where he would meet his old friend and reestablish the friendship that had grown with each life they shared together.

Arthur didn't always look the same. Sometimes he was a woman, sometimes born into a different country and a different ethnicity. It didn't matter what Arthur looked like, what he was called, Merlin always knew it was him. Arthur was an extension of himself, knowing Arthur was like knowing his own hand. Merlin would find Arthur wherever he was and spend that life by Arthur's side, helping the kingdom or country that needed him, fulfilling their destiny one life at a time.

There was always that spark of recognition between them when Arthur finally met Merlin in his current life. A sort of _there you are, I've been waiting for you_ moment that Merlin had the joy of being able to experience over and over again through Arthur. Merlin began to live for that moment. It was what carried him through his long life, through all of Arthur's. When Merlin watched that last spark fade from Arthur's eyes, he'd cry the tears he always cried. He'd mourn his best and only friend. Then begin the search again, waiting for that moment when he knew he had returned.


End file.
